The word ‘automation’ can be unnerving. We’ve all seen those ‘Robots Are Stealing Our Jobs!’ articles that do the rounds online, but the reality is far less daunting. Rather than seeing automation as a threat, what if you viewed it as a means to save time, increase efficiency and improve the customer experience, all while taking work off your plate?
Not all software businesses have been keen to embrace change, but it’s hard to deny that an automated hand will be key to supporting future growth in the industry. How many of these business automation opportunities could be a good fit for your operations?
Customer relationship management (CRM)
It’s not always easy to manage a sales pipeline, but it is essential. Luckily, there are plenty of CRM options on the market that can take the weight off your shoulders.
With the right tools, you will be able to better organise your data, target leads, improve the customer experience and manage an effective pipeline – automatically! For example, you can:
- Consolidate all your data in one easy access, central location
- Update customers with the latest products or news
- Target campaigns that will resonate with specific customer or prospect segments
- Generate reports and forecasts
- Track interaction history with contacts
Check out our piece on CRM best practice to find out how a tailored solution can be beneficial to your software business.
Customer support
It’s near on impossible to run a software business at scale without an established customer support system or department. In fact, according to a report from Forrester, 66% of people believe that valuing their time during a service interaction is the most important thing a company can do.
Whether it’s chat bots, tagging ticket requests, routing queries to the correct person or responding to issues, automated tools can be invaluable to support teams. Ultimately, they will help to minimise the possibility of human error, save time and improve the customer experience overall.
Software development
By streamlining processes, reducing workloads and adding a stabilized structure, automation can be a huge support to your software development. The tasks that lack a need for creativity or a human eye are ideal to automate, including:
- Rapid application development
- Code generation
- Quality assurance
- Deployment
Copywriting and editing
It may not be successfully writing full creative articles at this stage, but automation is making inroads. More repetitive and structured copy, such as product descriptions and business reports, are already being written by AI software in a fraction of the time it’d take a human to do the same.
Automation is also extremely helpful when it comes to proofing and editing, catching even the most minute spelling and grammatical errors. Some tools can give tips on tone and engagement levels, too.
Social media
As one of the best ways to stay engaged with your customers, the importance of social media when it comes to your business strategy shouldn’t be ignored. Automation can’t help much in the way of creating original content, but it is useful for publishing and distribution.
With an effective automation tool, you can prepare and schedule social media posts across multiple platforms in just one click. Not only will this help to keep a regular flow of published content, but it can also save a lot of valuable time for your marketing team.
To find out more about how Vesta support the growth of our family of software companies, please get in touch.
